Rudy Hits the Heartland

If you’re thinking that a city boy from Brooklyn might have trouble making himself at home in rural Iowa, then you haven’t spent a day here with Rudy Giuliani. In fact, to hear him talk, the former New York City mayor can hardly tell the two places apart. Ducking into Longhorn Saddlery and Western Wear in Fort Dodge to pick up some cowboy shirts for himself (extra large) and his designer-loving missus (small), Giuliani noted, “They had bull riding this year in Madison Square Garden.” At a town-hall forum held at Northern Iowa Area Community College (NIACC), he marveled, “There’s a city in New York called Nyack! Spelled differently …” Upon learning that composer Meredith Willson grew up in Mason City, Giuliani immediately made the connection: “The Music Man was on Broadway a long time.” Most familiar of all is Iowa’s tradition of retail politics, he said outside a Webster City diner called Coney’s Plus (yep, just like the island). “This,” declared Giuliani, “is the way you campaign in New York City.”

The mayor’s oft-proclaimed affinity for all things Iowa is particularly noteworthy as it wasn’t so long ago that Iowans were wondering if he’d gotten lost on the way to their state. In June Giuliani announced that he would skip the GOP straw poll in Ames. Until just a few weeks ago, he was spending more of his time in places like Florida and California, which have moved their primaries forward onto the heels of the early contests. Giuliani seemed to be calculating that he would have a better go of it in big states, where his 9/11 fame–which has made him the front runner in all the national polls–would give him an edge over the rest of the field, and where more diverse groups of voters might forgive his liberal stance on social issues like abortion and gay rights.

In recent weeks, however, Giuliani has been spending money on radio ads here and in New Hampshire; more important, he has been visiting more often. It could be paying off. State representative Kraig Paulsen says Iowans initially found Giuliani, who would occasionally blow through with his entourage, to be “a little bit New York.” Iowans, Paulsen explained, “are used to being able to talk to these guys, and they’re not used to having to push a bodyguard aside. There were some issues there.” But lately, he says, “there’s no one I’ve talked to who has interacted with him and been to one of his speeches who hasn’t walked away favorably impressed.”

The reasons for what Giuliani calls his “renewed emphasis on Iowa” are rooted partly in opportunity and partly in necessity. Former Senator Fred Thompson’s anticipated entry in the race could further divide the unsettled conservative base. Meanwhile, John McCain’s troubles could put some of his supporters and ground organization into play. In Mason City, making a none-too-subtle pitch for their affection, Giuliani pronounced himself a “big admirer” of the Arizona Senator and added, “If I were not running, I’d be supporting him.” The new early-state focus is also a defensive move. The latest polls show Mitt Romney solidly ahead in both Iowa and New Hampshire. Giuliani can’t afford to let the former Massachusetts Governor get a dangerous burst of momentum just before the round of all-important big-state primaries.

But Giuliani might not want to give up his Upper East Side apartment for an Iowa farmhouse just yet. Despite his newfound enthusiasm for the state, not everything about Giuliani translates well this far west of the Hudson. In the audience at Coney’s was Stan Sheldon, who has been active in Iowa presidential politics since 1936, when he got into trouble for pasting Alf Landon signs on the door of his school. This time Sheldon is supporting Romney. “I think he’s been married three times,” he said of Giuliani. “That’s gonna hurt him here.” And in a state where ground organization is everything, Giuliani’s starstruck audiences seemed to include few GOP stalwarts. Some in the crowd I talked to hadn’t even decided whether, come January, they would be caucusing with the Republicans or the Democrats.